I stared in total shock for a good minute at the sight of my ruined apartment. While my apartment wasn’t much, it was mine. And now someone had entered and torn it apart and I had nowhere to be.
Then the thoughts of ‘who did this? Who was here?’ started up. No one in the their right mind would rob me. I didn’t have anything worth robbing, so what the hell would robbing me do? Nothing, that’s what.
“Sam.” My mom tugged on my shirt sleeve and pulled me out of the doorway and into the hall. “We should go to the police.”
I nodded, knowing she was right. They could still be in there and it was dangerous to be standing here. “Yeah, okay,” I agreed tearing my eyes away from the trainwreck that was my home. “Let’s go.”
I considered just phoning the police, but decided driving to the station would be more productive and got mother and I away from the house.
I got mom back into the car and once again she had nothing to say about her seat belt or comfort. But this time I knew it wasn’t out of exhaustion but preoccupation.
The closest police station was right near the border of where the human sector and vamp sector met and was almost entirely manned by vamps. There were a few humans there, but they weren’t full officers like the vamps were and they had very little power.
My speedometer was clocking in at twenty miles above the speed limit the whole way there and I was white-knuckling the steering wheel.
The station was small and white with the words “City of Arlington Police Dept” emblazoned on the side in black lettering. I pulled into a parking spot, ignoring the fact that my car was at an angle leaving the right tires outside of the lines. My hands shook as I undid mother’s seatbelt and no matter how I much I tried to still them I couldn’t, making it difficult to actually get the buckle undone.
“Come on,” I said, my voice sounding annoyingly weak. “Let’s head in.”
I’d never actually been inside of the station before and was a bit surprised to find it as simple on the inside as it was outside. There was a front desk in the atrium and behind I could see a bull pen surrounded by offices for the higher ups.
“Can I help you?” I was jerked out of my thoughts by the man (well, vamp) standing at the front desk.
“Uh, yeah, hi,” I said, annoyed with awkwardness. “My house was robbed today—”
“Here,” he handed me a clipboard with paper on it. “Fill this out.”
“You’re not even going to listen to me?” I asked, getting upset.
“Ma’am, we get a lot of robberies. Just fill out the paperwork and someone will take the report.”
“And then you’ll profile the perpetrator and dust for fingerprints?”
The man laughed loudly at me. “It wasn’t a murder. Just fill out the paper, tell us what was taken, give your insurance information… you know. Just do what it says.”
“So how the hell are you going to help me?”
“Mostly we’ll just look out for you things in pawn shops.”
“Now listen here,” I said, my face heating up in anger as I slammed my hands down on his desk. “My house was robbed. Someone broke the lock and took my stuff.” I actually wasn’t too sure anything was missing. Our more expensive items were still there where I’d arrived home, but why else would someone enter my home and make a mess of things? “Your job is to protect the people! Well, fucking protect us!”
“You’re not in any danger—”
“Bullshit!”
“It was a theft.”
“What if they come back?”
“That almost never happens. Unless you have someone after you.”
I suddenly remembered the man from the club and I felt an icy chill of fear rush through me. “Uh, what if there is?”
“Who and what leads you to believe this person is after you?”
“Well, uh, I don’t really know him… I work at a club that mostly caters to vamps—er, vampires— and there was a man in the other day that kept giving me looks and told me I should grow out my hair and grabbed me.”
“Human or vampire?”
“What does it matter?”
The man just gave me a look.
“Fine, vamp.”
“We don’t like to be called that.”
I shrugged.
The man sighed. “Well, look, I like humans, I really do. But, there’s not much I can do in this case. I’m sorry, ma’am. The fact is, you don’t have enough to go off of to launch a full investigation and we stay busy. Now maybe if it was a human, we’d be able to do more, but to be frank, even if you had more evidence, we wouldn’t be able to do much against a vampire. So, just fill out the paperwork and we’ll do what we can.”
I huffed and turned on my heal. “Come on, mother,” I said, looking to where she’d been sitting during the argument. “Let’s go. These people are no help.” I dropped the clipboard he’d given me on the ground and made my way out the door, letting mom hold onto me for balance.
I tried my best to keep my composure, but the second I was in the car I put my face in my hands and screamed. “It’s not fair!” My voice was muffled my hands, but the words still managed to be clear.
“It’s okay, honey,” mom said, rubbing my back. I shook my head back and forth.
“It’s not, though. Everything’s a mess and now there could be someone after us and I don’t know what to do.” My eyes burned with tears I tried hard to hold back. I had to be strong, but I was helpless. There was nothing I could do.
“Everything will work out,” mother said, wrapping an arm around me and laying my head down in her lap. She rubbed my head like she used to when I was little and couldn’t sleep. “Everything always does.”
“How can you say that?” I was crying now. “After everything that’s happened… nothing works out right ever!”
“You just can’t see it now. We’re in a big picture and there’s a plan, you just can’t see it yet. Now take some deep breaths and let’s think. I didn’t raise you to quit just because the going got hard.”
I sat up and did as she said, taking deep breaths. “I-I guess I could call Rachele and we could stay with her for a bit until things get sorted out.”
“That sounds great, hun,” mom said.
I pulled out my cell, which was just an old cracked flip phone, and dialed for Rachele.
“Hello?” Rachele answered, her voice cheery as ever.
“Uh, hi Rache,” I said, unsure of how to start.
“What’s wrong, Sam?” she asked, concern now filling her voice. She was always good at reading me.
“Well, uh, my apartment was robbed—”
I heard Rachele’s sharp and sympathetic intake of breath from the other side. “Oh, no, sweetie!”
“Yeah and, well, I’m not real comfortable being home right now until things are sorted I was wondering if my mom and I could maybe stay at your place? I totally get if it that’s not o—”
“Oh, of course, of course!” Rachele said, interrupting my nervous rambling. “I wouldn’t want you going home now anyways! Get your little butt over here as soon as you can, okay?”
I grinned. Rachele was the best friend I could have ever asked for. As much as she was a bit of a ditz, she always came through for me.
“Thanks Rache.”
I hung up and started making my way back towards into the human sector, becoming more and more nervous the deeper I got. I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel and thought back to the other night at the club. ‘You’re just being paranoid’ I tried to tell myself, but I wasn’t sure I believed it. Something just felt wrong.
“I need my medicine, Sammy,” I heard mom say.
“Huh?” I looked over to her.
“I need my medicine. We don’t have it.”
I nodded, realizing she was right and was surprised that she would even remind me. “Yeah, you’re right. We should probably also put together some bags. Don’t want to be living too much off of Rachele.”
And so we made our way back home. I really didn’t want to see the place or enter, but it was a necessary evil that I just needed to get out of the way fast.
I pulled up into my parking spot and jumped out of the car quickly. “Come on, mom, let’s do this fast.”
Entering the house, I tried to ignore what awful condition it was in, but couldn’t help but notice nothing was actually missing. Nothing I could see anyways.
“Remember where your bag is mom?” She was looking around the house, surveying the damage but nodded anyways. “Okay, good. Just quickly grab your clothes. Remember, shirts, pants, pajamas, underwear, and socks? Yeah?”
Mom nodded again before making her way back into her room to grab her stuff. ‘Good, it’s faster if she can do it herself.’
I rushed into my room, noticing the door was wide open. The room was a mess, but that wasn’t anything shocking. My room was always a mess. I hated cleaning and really was never one to be bothered by messes. Mom was the neat freak in our relationship.
But this was a different mess. Nothing was where I’d left it and everything appeared to have been rummaged through. I noticed later a few items of my clothing and perfume was missing as well. I navigated my way through the mess and to my closet, quickly locating my duffel bag and stuffing it full of all the clothes I could get my hands on, rather clean or dirty. I stopped, however, when I picked up my jeans from the night the man had stared at me and remembered the lady I’d run into on the street.
‘Save that. It's my number. If you are in some trouble, give me a call. I can help.’
‘Surely I can’t believe her, though, right? I mean, she could be in cohorts with whoever did this.’ I shook my head and told myself I was being paranoid and retrieved the scrap of paper with Elvira’s number on it from my pants. ‘Maybe I could just call… wouldn’t hurt, would it?’
Having my made up my mind, I grabbed it and put it my pocket, figuring I’d call once mom was at Rachele’s.
I zipped my duffel up and walked over towards mom’s room. “You ready, ma?”
She nodded and handed me her bag, knowing I’d want to check. “Great. Why don’t you go gather our toiletries and grab your medicine case?”
I opened up mom’s bag and grinned at how nicely everything was placed in. Folded up perfectly and everything in a pile. She had always been incredibly organized and it was one of the quirks that she kept even after the accident. I glanced through, knowing mom could be forgetful and how embarrassing it was for her to get somewhere and realize she had no panties or socks or whatever.
“All done, Sam,” I heard my mom say from behind me and I turned to see her with a plastic baggy with everything in it.
“Thanks,” I said, taking the bag and placing it on top of mom’s stuff, closing her bag and grabbing both of them. “Come on, then.”
The trip to Rachele’s was short and quiet. Her apartment was much nicer than ours was, but she didn’t have the expenses I did. I pulled up into one of the guest parking places and once again helped mom out of the car, before grabbing just mom’s bag. I was just going to drop her off, then call Elvira. I know mom and Rachele wouldn’t approve and on most days I wouldn’t either, but I wanted to at least try.
I knocked rapidly on Rachele’s door, feeling incredibly nervous about this whole ordeal. It took only a second for the door to slam open. While Rachel’s home was nicer than ours, it was by no means nice. The wallpaper was peeling, the bathtub leaked, and the carpet was stained. I felt comfortable here, though.
“Sammy!” Rachele said, throwing her arms around me tight. “I was so worried.”
“We’re fine,” I said, smiling. “But, uh, I have some things I need to take care of real quick.”
“What things?”
“Just, uh, ya know. Things. Anyhow, mom’s exhausted. I wanted to drop her off first.”
Rache nodded, but looked at me suspiciously. “Come on Mrs. Harris. I’ll show you to the guest room.” I handed Rachele mom’s bag before jogging quickly back down to my car.494Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZpJaOSoF2X
